Japan to accept nurses from Indonesia

Reuters reports on how Japan is aiming to fix a shortage in nurses and elderly care workers by issuing work visas to skilled Indonesians:

The upper house of parliament on Friday approved an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Indonesia which would allow 400 experienced nurses and 600 experienced care workers to work in Japan on special three and four-year visas, the paper said. The lower house approved the agreement last month.

The nurses and care workers would undergo six months of training and language education before heading to hospitals and homes for the elderly, the Nikkei said. If they fail to gain the appropriate Japanese qualification before their visas run out, they will have to return home, it said.

The Indonesian nurses and care workers will be paid similar salaries to their Japanese colleagues, the paper said.

7 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - May 17, 2008 at 9:26 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: immigration, japan

Level3

“The Indonesian nurses and care workers will be paid similar salaries to their Japanese colleagues”

Suuuuuuuuuuure…

Wanna bet that “similar” means “significantly less AND with no twice a year bonuses”?
[Do nurses get bribes, oops, I mean "traditonal customary respectful gifts of envelopes stuffed with cash from patients who want competent treatment" like doctors do?]

Anyway, I think if they want to actually solve the mdeical care crisis, they need 40,000 nurses rather than 400. And start importing some doctors from countries where they’re willing to work after 5PM, in case people, you know, get sick or injured after 5PM.

If you stop paying your national health insurnace premiums, they cancel your coverage.. these days my response is “So what?”
Many of the working poor don’t have enough money to pay the 30% co-payment and go without needed medical care. Meanwhile the list of “approved” treatments and medicines is decades behind Western countires. Organ transplants are extremely rare, inserting a stent to open a blocked artery is a “new” miracle treatment only offered at a handful of hospitals, etc. etc.

And people still think nationalized health care is a great thing…

ダビ

Well as far as I know pretty much all countries with national health care pay less as a % of GDP than the US does AND get better results..

And I’ve heard that Japan is known for not paying for some expensive treatments but I think sometimes that’s justified. If you can spend $100,000 to extend someone’s life 2 months is it really worth it?

http://dd wu

um……… better results? Heart surgeons killing little girls by setting the machines that circulate her blood wrong. No residency programs for doctors to practice on LIVE patients before they are given right to practice medicine on the public. Telling teenagers that they can live without their ACL instead of performing simple out patient surgery to correct the problem. Ya japan is way better than the US.

reisender

Wow, similar salaries. Wow.
Aekutopia

In Hong Kong, they import Filipinoes and Indonesians as domestic helpers.

In Japan, they’re importing them as nurses and care workers.
In case of Filipinoes, they usually come to Japan as “entertainers”.

It seem like women from these 2 nations are in high demand in East Asia.
BakaNewMexican

This article about the recruitment of foreign nurses and the other article about the shortage of future engineers do not bode well for the future of Japan.

So, if there aren’t enough nurses (caused in large part by Japanese people living so long) and there aren’t enough engineers, then just what are Japanese people doing? It certainly begs the question, doesn’t it?

Oh, wait. I know.

We have an entire generation of Japanese who would rather become parasite singles or NEETs or Freeters than pursue a productive life or career. Life is just so much easier when you can have your parents pay for your trips abroad “to learn English” OR spend your days endlessly reading manga, playing video games, and watching anime and not worry about having to look for work or go to school OR not have to worry about paying the rent because your parents are still willing to pay for everything, etc, etc, etc.

These two articles are just more examples of a troubled society that so desperately needs to change.

I think that Michael Zielenziger’s book, “Shutting Out the Sun: How Japan Created Its Own Lost Generation”, nailed Japan’s problems right on the money. It’s a disturbing read, but one I highly recommend.
morningstar

Will all the indonesian nurses speak Japanese and read and write ?

Japan to accept nurses from Indonesia

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